The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) continues to turn recovering drug dependents into active and productive members of the society.
About 80 drug surrenderees in the Municipality of Talisay in Batangas recently underwent basic training on search and rescue, first aid, and firefighting as part of their community rehabilitation program under the Yakap Bayan framework.
Yakap Bayan is an inter-agency collaborative framework that provides rehabilitation, aftercare, transformation, and reintegration support for recovering drug dependents. Being led by the DSWD, it aims to capacitate drug surrenderees and turn them into productive members of the society, specifically, community disaster volunteers who can be readily in times of calamities.
DSWD Assistant Secretary Jose Antonio Hernandez, who has been championing the Yakap Bayan framework, encouraged the drug surrenderees to help themselves and their community.
“Gawin nating modelo ang Talisay sa buong Batangas pagdating sa community rehabilitation program para sa mga drug surrenderees. Tulungan ninyo ang inyong sarili at ang inyong bayan (Let us make Talisay a model in Batangas when it comes to the provision of community rehabilitation program for drug surrenderees. Help yourselves and your town),” he said.
Series of training
According to Police Senior Inspector Emil O. Mendoza, the Talisay Police Chief, there are a total of 500 drug surrenderees in the municipality. All of them will be undergoing the training.
“This is just the first of the series of our training for drug surrenderers. We still have next batches. All those who surrendered will be undergoing this disaster response training, along with other interventions, as part of our community rehabilitation program under the Yakap Bayan,” explained Captain Mendoza.
The training was organized by the Talisay Municipal Police Station with the help of the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (MDRRMC), the Coast Guard Sub-Station in the town, and the Bureau of Fire Protection.
“There will also be an advanced seminar for the surrenderees who underwent the basic training to further improve their disaster response skills,” Captain Mendoza shared.
Talisay has been following the Yakap-Bayan framework in rehabilitating former drug dependents in the town. In January last year, ‘Linis-Bayan,’ which is part of the framework, was piloted in the municipality. Linis Bayan or community clean-up drive is an activity of the DSWD that aims to reintegrate drug surrenderees in the community by involving them in activities that will have a positive impact in their barangays.
Asec. Hernandez also explained the trajectory of Yakap Bayan to the surrenderees.
“Sa pamamagitan ng Yakap Bayan, ang gusto namin ay mabago ang tingin sa inyo ng inyong mga ka-Barangay. Kung dati ang turing sa inyo ay salot ng lipunan, ngayon, kayo ay superhero na dahil kayo na ang unang tutulong sa inyong barangay bilang mga disaster volunteers. Kaya sana ay huwag ninyo sayangain ang oportunidad na ibinigay sa inyo (Through Yakap Bayan, we want to help change the way your fellow citizens in the barangay look at you. By being disaster volunteers in your village, they will no longer treat you as plagues of the society, but as ‘superheroes’. I hope that you will not waste this opportunity,” he told them. ###
